South African birds in a Canadian museum: the legacy of colonial service by Lionel E Taylor

Abstract

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, holds a collection of 498 specimens of 275 bird species presented by Lionel E Taylor, who worked in South Africa for the Department of Forestry from 1902 to 1911. Most specimens are in very good condition, and many have date and locality information; about one-third were collected around Irene, outside Pretoria, in Gauteng province, where Taylor lived before relocating to Canada. Full details can be accessed from the museum’s website. The history and composition of this collection is described here briefly.